The New Demon King: The Beginning

Chapter 2 - Incident With New People

"Are you ready to find out about your abilties?" Blake asked me shortly after we went outside.

It was after dinner time and it was quite dark, but I can still see the remnants of the attack that happened not too long ago. The sight of burnt houses and charred bodies can be found almost in every corner of the village.

"Before we begin, I have a few more questions" I interrupted. Hearing this, Blake immediately signaled me to continue.

"First, you told me that the system chooses the candidates among the sinful, and you also said that you are a demon tasked to ensure my safety before I awaken. If both were true, then how were you able to by our side even before I was born? How did you know?" I asked.

"Good question. That is correct, both are true... until a variable were discovered by a previous king" he replied, then paused for awhile, making me more curious.

"Remember when I said that one of the previous Demon King were the cause behind the revelation of the Demon Race? It was related to that. When people discovered the people linked to the system, they immediately categorized them into another race because of the fact that each of them looks like from different races but had only one thing in common, but different from the other races; the vast amount of magic in the bodies."

"Of course, none of them knows about the system, and just assumed that it's a new race, which was actually advantageous, in a way."

"If the Church finds out that the sinful people are the ones who become Demon King candidates, instead of trying to lure the sinful into their belief, they will start to kill off anyone who they judge as sinful, and it will be chaotic for everyone. And so, the next Demon King made a rule, using the knowledge accumulated by an old Demon he met. The rule was to make the seven strongest survivors of the Demon Race, guide the demon candidates. With this, Demon Race knowledge can be passed down, and they can avoid all the possible chaos."

As a result of passing down knowledge, a new discovery came to light. When a Demon King dies, an energy is released from his body and is transferred towards the candidates. Not to mention, that this energy can actually be, in one way or another, controlled to a certain extent. It was discovered, that the system chooses the candidates, according to the previous King's standards of the seven sins"

"After this discovery was attained, the Kings of the following generations, made their minds think that newborn babies are also sinful, to include them among the possible candidates. With babies, they will have more potential, since they can still grow up before they actually activate the seeds inside them"

"And naturally, the energy would prefer a baby because they have less mental barriers. Since babies are easier to guide and teach, and considering all the former factors, the previous kings thought that it was the most preferred candidates. Now, the guides will only need to find the mark of a candidate."

"Okay, I get that, but that does not completely answer my question though? If you look for whatever mark you're talking about, how did you find me even before I was born?"

Based from what I understood, the Demon King widens the scope for the system to choose from and because of the babies being newly born, they have no mental barriers and the system prefers them. If that is so, looking for the candidates, among the babies, will still be difficult, isn't it?

"I was assigned to guide the candidate of Envy. With that, all I needed to do is narrow down my search to the abused or poor families, because kids will be more prone to jealousy and envy if they experience so much difficulty in life. And so, I found this group of people, wanting to escape from war. I went with them and try to look for any possible candidates. Until I found a newly married couple, namely your parents. And through some lies and deception, they took me in and adopted me."

Wait. He was adopted? Why did my parents never told me about this? Was it because I was too young?

"During that time, I'm still trying to look for other potential candidates, until I saw a great amount of magic inside your mother. It was not visible unless you're a sage, a high priest, a hero or a demon like me. It was weird for a human to have, until I realized that it would be possible if it was the demon candidate I was looking for. And so, I waited for your birth. Once you were born, I saw your birthmark, the symbol of Envy. And that's how I finally conclude that you were indeed a candidate. 

Maybe this somehow proves the beliefs of some people, that the parents' sins are partially passed down to their children"

"I-I see... but why did my parents never told me about you being adopted?" I asked

"I told them to do so"

What? Why?

"According to Demon History, the nature of the seed is related to the awakening; although it was never confirmed. And so I tried to make you become more envious of me, your elder brother. I wanted to awaken you quicker, by making you envious of the fact that I was first born and I was more talented than you. I tried my best to nurture that seed of envy within you. I'm very sorry about for everything..." he explained with a saddened face.

Wow. I was stunned for a few seconds. I needed to process everything I've heard. My brother was adopted and all the envious feelings I had towards him was all intentionally made.

It feels like my childhood was such a lie.

But I must get my head straight. There's still a lot of things to do and figure out. And most of these things must be done as early as I can.

If you think about it, this kind of thinking is like how most modern people think, I guess. That fast-paced feeling.

"My next question is... were there any survivors left?"

Hearing this, Blake smiled and answered.

"My Lord, there were 12 survivors; 8 Women and 3 young girls and 1 young boy. Among them was your mother."

Hearing this, I was reminded of my parents. If my mother is alive, I wonder what happened to father?

"Your father fought back one of the bandits to make your mother escape. I went looking for you when your mother was trying to escape, so I don't know what happened to him"

"Do you have any abilities to find where my father is?"

"I'm very sorry. My skills are all psychic abilities, but with the amount of magic I have right now, all I can do is a few mental debuff spells, and some mental attacks."

Hearing his answer, I did not try to pursue anymore. We don't have any options right now. We don't know where to look for father. At least, I know that he might still be alive since a body wasn't found yet.

"Where are the survivors?"

"I placed them all in the village cabin for now. I put them to sleep with my spells, so they can get some complete rest and wait for you to wake up. With the amount of magic you have right now, even normal people can guess that you're not human anymore, and that would surprise them too much, if we don't prepare enough. We need to analyze your skills first and prepare your body, so we can hide a bit of your magic and aura."

Okay. That's understandable. We'll take care of them, once we have discussed what to do.

"Okay. Let's proceed now. Teach me about my skills."

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

After a few hours of lessons from Blake, I got the basics of it.

Because Demon King's skills vary from person to person, he can only teach me so much.

First, if I say Status, a status board appears in front of me.

[Name] Brendan

[Job] Demon King

[Age] 15

[Level] 1

[Attribute] Seed Of Envy

[Race] Ancient Demon

[Skills]

[Passive] Heavenly System (SSS)

[Active] Spirit Grant (SS)

[Subordinate(s)] 0

This status board is only visible to me, and me alone. Other people can see this if they have an appraisal stone or an appraisal skill, which was rare to have. And it is usually something done, only with consent. Unless it's for some kind of internal control or looking for a criminal.

The [Heavenly System] Skill is probably the system that chose me and the one organizing all of my skills.

[Spirit Grant] was defined by the System, like this:

[Spirit Grant]

Lets you form a contract with someone by providing them a spirit that would grow in them, as long as they are connected with you

[Conditions]

- Contract must be consensual and target mush have no thoughts of betrayal at the time of casting

- User must provide a Bloodline Name for complete success

"Should we experiment with my skill? I'm not sure as to what it can do, but it will most probably grant a person with something?"

I asked, curious to what my skill can do, as I walked towards my brother.

"Well, I think someone else would be fitting for your first one"

Huh?

I immediately stopped walking when he said that, and faced at the direction where my brother is looking at.

Clueless as to what Blake meant, shortly after, a group of people arrived in the scene. They are a group of six people.

"My Lord, once a candidate awakens, all the magic provided by the system to the other candidates, will go to the awakened candidate, making the amount of magic you have grow exponentially. Each of their birthmarks will disappear as well. At the same time, each demon guides will notice that change from the candidates and can safely assume that one candidate has awaken"

Listening to what Blake said, I can somehow assume what he meant. Does he mean that they are the other demon guides?

"These three are, demon guides for the other candidates"

Immediately, three of them knelt down, the way Blake did before, and introduced themselves.

"Your Highness, I'm Allen Olaf, the guide for the Seed of Greed" the handsome fair-skinned guy said, as he knelt down.

"My name is, Sky Solaris, the guide for the Seed of l**t" the cute guy who has such a smooth skin said.

"And I'm Kristof Mcqueen, the guide for the Seed of Pride" the most burly guy, among the three, stated.

Surprised and stunned about what's happening, I immediately made them stand up. Seeing my brother kneel down in front of me was shocking enough for me, and now I'm seeing three good-looking strangers kneeling down in front of me.

"So this dirty poor commoner is the new Demon King?!" a tall tan guy behind the three, muttered.

Surprised, Kristof immediately shut him up from his careless words.

But it was too late. Something inside me, somehow changed.

I was, strangely, easily consumed with anger and envy. Surely, this guy is a noble or someone who definitely experienced a high status in life. It was obvious with his clothes, posture and the way he mocked me. He probably never experienced hardship and poverty for him to judge me so quickly. He probably never worked hard for whatever he have right now. If only I had the same luck as him.

Thoughts just continued pouring down on my mind as I looked at him.

"What do you know?" I muttered, glaring at him.

I don't know why but I feel so frustrated. I easily get jealous and envious about other people, but I always try to hide it and pretend that it doesn't bother me. Reason will always succeed in my mind, especially with the memories I obtained from my previous life. Strangely, now, I can't seem to control it.

Did they do something good in their previous life, for them to have such good luck on their current life?

"My Lord! Brendan! CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS! YOU'LL KILL HIM!"

My thoughts were interrupted by my brother's voice and I noticed my surroundings. Everyone were panicking, especially the three people who are behind the demon guides. They are sweating buckets and they definitely look frightened. The tan guy looks like he was choking and was kneeling down. He looks like he was suffocated.

Did I do that? What did I do?

I almost killed him! I almost killed a person!

Without thinking, I rushed towards him, hesitant to touch him, because I might hurt him. But my instincts got ahead of me, and I touched his face, searching if he's fine now.

Is this the effect of being a Demon King?

Please be alright.